Partnering with Your Subconscious

The very same capacities that make us adaptively intelligent
also make us susceptible to self-deception. – John Vervaeke

In my last post (Interpersonal Consciousness?), I speculated that what I call formful spiritual experiences (visions, auditions, out of body experiences, telepathy, channeling and spirit guides, past-life regression, etc.) are generated from inside our self by the subconscious mind rather than being somehow received from other beings. Because our subconscious operates below our conscious awareness (It’s in the name!), these experiences can feel like they do not originate from us. This naturally leaves us wondering where they do come from. To make sense of them, we can easily conclude that they have been sent to us by other beings or that we have sensed them remotely by some extraordinary, “spiritual” means. I doubt any such understandings.

I see what I call formless mystical experience to be more straightforwardly valid. (You can refer to the previous post for a discussion of the difference between formless and formful.) I also admit that formless and formful mysticism occur on a continuum and that separating them may not be something we can completely do. But, that’s okay. I don’t really see formful experiences as invalid. What I see to be invalid is the understanding that the content of formful experiences arises from something other than one’s own subconscious. Formful spiritual/religious/mystical experiences can be a valid way for the subconscious to speak to the rest of the mind. However, it can also be a source of misleading confusion.

So, how do we avoid or, at least, minimize such confusion?

By being careful and honest in our relationship with our subconscious!

We must recognize and respect our subconscious mind and cultivate a healthy relationship with it.

Yes, I speak of the subconscious mind as significantly independent from the conscious mind. We all have the experience of parts of our conscious mind being at odds with other parts of itself, as when our reason and emotions are in conflict. This is a case where two significantly independent centers of intelligence disagree. The subconscious also contains relatively independent centers of intelligence that can be at odds with one another or with the conscious centers. It is finally all one mind, but it operates in parts, and those parts are not always well integrated and harmonious.

The subconscious mind can profoundly influence our conscious experience of reality. Hypnotism amazingly demonstrates how powerful the subconscious mind can be in this regard. If you have never watched a stage hypnotist at work, I highly recommend it.

The subconscious functions to support the wellbeing of the organism as a whole. While it is very powerful, it is not the center of control. The center is the whole organism. It is a complex interaction: subconscious and conscious, emotion and reason, instinct and volition. All the different parts have influence. In different people and at different times, choices can arise from different centers of intelligence. Much of the time we run on autopilot; often we act from emotion; and sometimes we make carefully reasoned decisions.

The subconscious will run the show to the extent that we don’t exercise our conscious volition. That’s pretty much its job. But, our conscious volition has an important leadership role to play. While our conscious mind is not directly aware of the machinations of the subconscious, the subconscious is aware of the choices and values of our conscious mind. In my experience, the subconscious tries to respect those choices and values, at least as long as strong emotions or instincts do not drive it in a different direction.

This means we must be careful about our choices and values. The subconscious will play along with what it thinks we want or need. That is, our subconscious will help us deceive ourself if we want to be deceived. Likewise, it can help us see through our delusions if we seek truth.

I have found that actually talking to my subconscious, which I also refer to as my lower self, can be helpful and powerful. This is something like what psychology would call autosuggestion. It can be a powerful way to manage emotion and change behavior. I do not approach it simply as my conscious mind giving commands to my subconscious mind. Rather, I approach it as a conversation in which my conscious mind expresses its concerns and wants and, in turn, is sensitive to the feelings and images offered up by the subconscious. The goal is, not for the subconscious mind to serve the demands of the conscious mind, but to achieve as much unity and harmony as possible between these two parts of what is ultimately me.

In addition to managing much of my bodily, emotional, and mental processes, I see my subconscious to be my gateway to awareness of spirit, which I also refer to as universal primal consciousness and as God. I see the evolution of complex intelligence in biological systems, with us humans on the cutting edge here on Earth, to be a process of complexification that uses universal primal consciousness as the basic building material and the driving force. This means that I see individual egoic consciousness to be a product of spirit. I, in fact, see everything to be manifestations of spirit, but my focus here is on consciousness and intelligence. I see individual consciousness to be the psychologically complex interior (mind) of a biologically complex exterior (body).

Evolutionary pressures necessarily push us to focus on personal survival and well-being, which keeps us busily functioning within a largely egotistical, sensory-dominated perspective. Formless mystical experience happens when we temporarily fall out of survival mode into simple awareness of the universal primal consciousness that is always present in and under our cognition. This does not involve believing anything but simply waking up to what is real and true.

The subconscious sits below the conscious mind and above this simple spiritual consciousness and connects the two. A relatively clean, honest relationship between one’s conscious and subconscious minds is, therefore, essential to authentic awareness of the presence of God in your deepest self. It is in such experience that one can taste causal and nondual awareness.

If you really want to grow more in touch with all levels of reality, let your subconscious mind know that this is what you want and value, and ask it to help you in any way it can.

© Copyright 2025 John Speers